Treasured Memory
by Tohda
Summary: It started out as a dare. It grew into love. It ended in the face of truth and sometimes, only memory loss can help him heal... HoroRen; HaoRen


Treasured Memory 

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in Shaman King. I don't own the story of Shaman King. Don't own the whole anime but…. this fic, this one's mine.

Chapter 1: Accepting the Dare

"Just do it, Horo Horo!" Ryu insisted. "That is, of course, unless you want to admit that you're too chicken!"

"Shut up!" Horo Horo bit back, annoyed. He thought about what he was about to do.

He, Ryu, and Chocolove had decided to play Truth or Dare when they got bored. It was just by chance that Horo Horo chose the stupidest time to pick Dare. So, Ryu dared Horo Horo to get the coldest person to fall in love with the Ainu. Having a great attachment to life, Horo Horo dared not seek Hao, Yoh's powerful twin brother who, they discovered, was not dead after all. Horo Horo dared not ask Anna either. It wasn't good to mess with that woman. The only option left was Ren. The only problem was, Ren was just as murderous as the previous two options.

Horo Horo frowned.

"Damn it!" Horo Horo stood up and walked outside. "Give me three weeks! You'll find Ren with me! But if I die, you're all answering to Pirika!"

Ren was at the park, looking at the stars and thinking.

'Wonder if I should go back already,' Ren thought, thinking about his family.

Ever since he reconciled with his father, thoughts of home no longer irked Ren. However, Ren chose to stay in Japan. Not only to be with his friends, but also, to be with a certain Ainu.

Wait! Where did that come from?

Ren shook his head to clear his head.

"Oi! Ren!" a voice greeted.

Ren's eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

"What do you want?" Ren snapped.

"Well," Horo Horo sat next to the Chinese shaman. "It's really cold and you ought to go back to Yoh's place and stay inside where it's warm."

"Go jump in a lake, baka Ainu!" Ren muttered, not understanding why he pretended to be harsh to the one he loves. "I didn't ask you to come."

"You can try being a little nice, you know!" Horo Horo said, hotly. "I'm just worried about you. You don't have to snap at me or insult me."

"I didn't ask you to come," Ren said. "Furthermore, I didn't ask you to worry."

"Come on, Ren," Horo Horo said. "Yoh and the others are looking for you."

"And they can keep looking," Ren said coldly. "I want to be left alone."

"You can't be alone forever," Horo Horo said softly, standing up and starting to walk away.

'But I am alone,' Ren thought. 'You just don't know it.'

Horo Horo frowned as he walked back to Yoh's house where everyone, except for Ren, was. He walked all the way to the park for nothing.

"How the heck am I supposed to fulfill a dare when the person involved is just too impossible to talk to?!" Horo Horo raged, finally snapping. "Stupid dare!" he muttered as he kicked a stone on his way.

Horo Horo stopped to breathe.

'Perhaps I'm doing it wrongly,' Horo Horo thought. 'Maybe I should try a different tactic.'

"Hmmm…. Right…." Horo Horo grinned.

"What's right?" a voice asked from behind.

"Eeyah!!!" Horo Horo screamed. He turned to see the Chinese shaman looking at him seriously. "Ren! Don't scare people like that!"

"Hmph… baka Ainu," Ren walked past Horo Horo.

Horo Horo sighed.

"Giving up already?" another voice asked from behind Horo Horo. This time, Horo Horo met the person with a punch.

"OW!!!" Chocolove rubbed his nose. "What the hell was that for?!"

Chocolove got up, glaring at Horo Horo.

"What's with people and sneaking up on me?" Horo Horo asked.

"I wasn't sneaking!" Chocolove protested. "I was merely asking you if you're ready to give up. Ryu's laughing about it, you know."

"I know," Horo Horo frowned. "But how am I supposed to get Ren to fall in love with me without having me lose any body parts?"

"Eh…" Chocolove thought hard. "That dare was rather cruel. But I don't know what to do, Horo Horo. I'm a joker. Not someone who could help with love."

"I see…" Horo Horo stuck his hands inside his pockets. He tried to change the subject. "What did Ryu choose?"

"Dare," Chocolove answered.

"Oh?" Horo Horo looked at the clown.

"What did you dare him to do?" Horo Horo asked, curiously.

Chocolove grinned.

"Since you gave me an easy dare, and he gave you a cruel one, I gave him something that would give him as much problem as his dare would give you," Chocolove said. "I dared him to date Anna."

Horo Horo smirked. "His reaction?"

"He fainted."

The next day, Horo Horo found himself walking to the grocery, a list of ingredients inside his pocket. He had woken up early by some rare chance and it just happened that he was in the kitchen when Anna came walking by to check the supplies. It turned out that the Asakura home was out of food supplies so Anna called the first person she saw: Horo Horo.

"Might as well do it," Horo Horo thought out loud. "I mean, I'm staying in their house for the weekend. It's only right that I help out."

'Heh, fat chance!' a contradicting part of Horo Horo's mind thought. 'You're only doing this because you don't want to get beaten by Anna.'

Horo Horo shrank at the thought of the spirit shaman. She was one scary woman!

When Horo Horo exited the grocery, he was surprised to see Ren waiting by the post.

"What are you doing here, Ren?" Horo Horo asked.

"Hn. Anna told me to help you carry the grocery bags," Ren said. "Knowing you, you'll probably drop them."

"Hey!" Horo Horo protested. "That was mean! Besides, why don't you just say that Anna scared you into helping me?"

"I am not scared of anyone!" Ren said, eyebrow twitching.

"Hehe…" Horo Horo laughed. "Yeah right. Who cares anyway? Here, get the two bags."

Ren got two grocery bags from Horo Horo, leaving the Ainu with two other bags.

The two walked together in silence.

After a few blocks, Ren finally broke the silence.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ren asked Horo Horo.

"Huh?" Horo Horo looked at Ren. "Me? What's wrong with me? Do you actually care enough to know?"

Ren blushed.

"Kisama! D-don't mistake the question, you baka!" Ren stammered, angrily.

"Why are you always angry at me?" Horo Horo asked, seriously.

"Cause you're stupid," Ren replied without hesitance.

Horo Horo turned away, not saying anything.

Ren frowned. Usually, the Ainu would have had a reply for that. But now, the Ainu was silent as ever. This was an unusual thing.

"What now?" Ren asked. "Why are you so silent?"

"I don't understand you," Horo Horo said softly. "I really don't."

Ren started.

"I've been trying to get you to open up for a long time," Horo Horo continued. "I tried to get you to be part of the group the night Yoh introduced you to us. I tried to be your friend. But you always called me stupid. And even now, you still call me that. I get more insults than friendly talks when I try to know you."

Ren didn't know how to reply to this.

"You know what hurts me most?" Horo Horo continued, looking at Ren sadly. "What hurts me most is the fact that you'll never care. You never knew how I nearly broke down the moment I thought you were dead. You never knew how hard I tried to keep Hao's followers from you while Faust treated your wounds. You never knew how much I've sacrificed for you. All the while, you insult me as though I have been a worst enemy instead of a friend."

"I… I…" Ren stammered.

"You what?" Horo Horo asked, angrily. "You're sorry? Oh wait, I forgot. The great Tao Ren never says that. The great Tao Ren never deserves weak friends like this Ainu baka he is walking with now, right?"

Horo Horo walked faster, leaving Ren behind. The Ainu sighed. Perhaps he overdid it a bit. But if it was just an act, how come he felt the pain behind those words?

Ren looked down as he thought of what Horo Horo had said. Perhaps he was wrong to insult the Ainu. After all, Horo Horo did, in a way, save Ren. Horo Horo did try to be his friend.

"Horo Horo," Ren ran to catch up.

Horo Horo didn't turn.

"Horo Horo, wait!" Ren called out.

Horo Horo stopped.

"What?" Horo Horo asked, numbly.

"I… I-I'm sorry," Ren stuttered.

Horo Horo's eyes widened.

"D-did you just… apologized?" Horo Horo asked in disbelief. "Did you by chance trip and fall on the ground on your way to the grocery? How hard did you hit your head?"

Ren looked down, turning red.

"Don't be stupid!" Ren snapped. "I… I…. Forget it!"

Horo Horo frowned. He started walking again.

"Aishiteru," Ren whispered softly.

Horo Horo stopped. He turned slowly.

"What?" the Ainu asked.

"Nothing," Ren said quickly, realizing his mistake.

"You sure have a funny way of showing it," Horo Horo said indignantly, knowing that Ren was not going to repeat his words. "You call insulting a person love? You call pushing him away love?"

"You won't understand anyway," Ren narrowed his eyes. "After all, you make fun of me, too. Not just verbally. The only difference is that someone stops me when I try to hit you back. But no one stops you."

This time, it was Ren who walked away.

"Then make me understand, damn you!" Horo Horo shouted after the Chinese shaman. "How can I understand if you don't talk to me? How can I understand if you won't say anything?"

"Yoh understood me a bit, didn't he?" Ren retorted coldly, stopping as he spoke. "And I never said anything."

Ren resumed his pace.

"But I'm not Yoh!" Horo Horo yelled, tears of frustration in his eyes. "And I'll never be Yoh!

TBC

Author's Notes: This is my first Shaman King fic so please review and tell me what you think. I would be glad to welcome comments and so. At least I'll know if this story's worth continuing or not. If I got the personalities wrong, sorry. I tried hard since this story won't get out of my head after I watched the anime and even though I usually write under Weiß Kreuz category. So please tell me how this chapter is.


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